[1.] A writer in the Gothaische Gelehrte Zeitungen, 1775 (II, 787 ff.), asserts that Sterne’s works are the favorite reading of the German nation.

[2.] A further illustration may be found in the following discourse: “Von einigen Hindernissen des akademischen Fleisses. Eine Rede bey dem Anfange der öffentlichen Vorlesungen gehalten,” von J. C. C. Ferber, Professor zu Helmstädt (1773, 8o), reviewed in Magazin der deutschen Critik, III, St. I., pp. 261 ff. This academic guide of youth speaks of Sterne in the following words: “Wie tief dringt dieser Philosoph in die verborgensten Gänge des menschlichen Herzens, wie richtig entdeckt er die geheimsten Federn der Handlungen, wie entlarvt, wie verabscheuungsvoll steht vor ihm das Laster, wie liebenswürdig die Tugend! wie interessant sind seine Schilderungen, wie eindringend seine Lehren! und woher diese grosse Kenntniss des Menschen, woher diese getreue Bezeichnung der Natur, diese sanften Empfindungen, die seine geistvolle Sprache hervorbringt? Dieser Saame der Tugend, den er mit wohlthätiger Hand ausstreuet?” Yorick held up to college or university students as a champion of virtue is certainly an extraordinary spectacle. A critic in the Frankfurter Gel. Anz., August 18, 1772, in criticising the make-up of a so-called “Landbibliothek,” recommends books “die geschickt sind, die guten einfältigen, ungekünstelten Empfindungen reiner Seelen zu unterhalten, einen Yorick vor allen . . . .” The long article on Sterne’s character in the Götting. Mag., I, pp. 84–92, 1780, “Etwas über Sterne: Schreiben an Prof. Lichtenberg” undoubtedly helped to establish this opinion of Sterne authoritatively. In it Sterne’s weaknesses are acknowledged, but the tendency is to emphasize the tender, sympathetic side of his character. The conception of Yorick there presented is quite different from the one held by Lichtenberg himself.

[3.] The story of the “Lorenzodosen” is given quite fully in Longo’s monograph, “Laurence Sterne und Johann Georg Jacobi” (Wien, 1898, pp. 39–44), and the sketch given here is based upon his investigation, with consultation of the sources there cited. Nothing new is likely to be added to his account, but because of its important illustrative bearing on the whole story of Sterne in Germany, a fairly complete account is given here. Longo refers to the following as literature on the subject:

Martin, in Quellen und Forschungen, II, p. 10, p. 27, Anmerk. 24.

Wittenberg’s letter in Quellen und Forschungen, II, pp. 52–53.

K. M. Werner, in article on Ludw. Philipp Hahn in the same series, XXII, pp. 127 ff.

Appell: “Werther und seine Zeit,” Leipzig, 1855, p. 168. (Oldenburg, 1896, p. 246–250).

Schlichtegroll: “Nekrolog von 1792,” II, pp. 37 ff.

Klotz: Bibliothek, V, p. 285.

Jacobi’s Werke, 1770, I, pp. 127 ff.